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Hey guys, Im new here, my name is Blake and am looking for some advise for the following. My dad owns this 1998 GS400:

He has been the owner since new, passed it along to my brother, who dropped it and put the wheels on it. And now its back in my fathers hands and he has been looking to do something with the interior. Mainly replace the front seats for lower milage units or something, but I was at the junk yard looking for some Audi gear, and stumbled across a 430 with near perfect black interior. I've always hated the GS steering wheel, because there is no wood grain on it, and the emblem is just plain. but the 430s steering wheel is beautiful on top of being black. I can acquire the entire interior for $375USD, pretty much anything that is black. I'm no stranger to interior swaps, steering wheels coding, motor pulls, etc, but mainly with Audis. I am aware that it will take a lot of time and patience and to spend this amount of effort like this on an old Lexus is not everyones cup of tea. But its always a good time bonding with the father.

My questions are primarily the air bags. I read about the single stage vs dual stage. I am a little unfamiliar with the Lexus electronics. In the Audi world, guys simply wire up the high speed impact to the single stage signal. Not at all what I do, nor want to do here. Its been proven to work in Audis, but still not a risk I take with my Audis, nor my fathers car. I figure for the steering column, I will only be swapping the shrouds, and will still be left with the dilemma of single to dual. I would prefer to keep the from having to purchase a complete RX wheel and air bag which is almost the cost of the swap. Can the air bag covers be modified/swapped? What about the rest of the air bags, like the one in the dash, the seats, does anyone know if they are all compatible? Or is the whole 430 a completely different animal?

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After some reading, here is what I know, i'll edit as I verify/get clarification:

Pillars: B-Pillar is different in height and fastener locations. It seems like the B pillar is different as well, due to the side air bags. Sounds like the headliner needs to be done as well, which is probably for the best seeing how the tan one is tan. But some holes dont line up, but might need to get creative to fix the panels.

Seats: appear to have mixed information, some say plug and play, other say re-pinning the connectors, no problem there but will confirm. Also the 430 seats have locating pin going into the floor board, which either gets cut off or drilled in the floor board. I'll probably just cut it off.

Dash: only note i find is to remove the wiring harness from our 400 and put in place of the 430, and it sounds like a squillion fasteners

Wheel: 400 single stage vs 430 dual stage dilemma. 430 also has radio control buttons, but cannot be integrated, i'll get the blank off cover for the wheel. 430s didnt have tiptronic? this wheel doesnt, but we arent really concerned with that anyways.

Radio/HVAC: Only mentioning this because our 400 has that fake laminated wood trim and I am hoping the 430s works and drops in place of it all. We have the Nakamichi, and some 430s have the ML which is more of an awareness for others which sounds like it isnt plug and play. If we have to keep ours, or source others, then so be it.

Asides from that, its just popping pressure pins and fasteners. I'm still debating the steering wheel and what direction to go. Have not found much on swapping airbag components under the covers.